


The Pride of Perseus Academy

by GeroGyaru



Category: Original Work
Genre: Age Difference, Anal Sex, Brainwashing, Cheerleaders, F/F, F/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 13:25:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19442347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeroGyaru/pseuds/GeroGyaru
Summary: A fanfic for the artist Lewdtime's character, Erick. In the year 2024, Erick Dubois' private middle school is in heavy debt after spending lots of money on sports programs without seeing any returns. In order to pay off their debts, they are going to need to win the Texas state football championship three years in a row. How can they motivate the team to play well enough to do that after their losing streak? Eccentric neuroscientist Marie Harris sees a way - and an opportunity.





	The Pride of Perseus Academy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lewdtime](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lewdtime).



> Before I begin the story proper, I would like to give some credits and make a disclaimer. If you want to skip to the story, feel free to ignore these notes.
> 
> The character Erick and the original inspiration for this work are from the artist Lewdtime.
> 
> Special thanks to my beta readers TiberiusPonificus and ShotaSheriff from Baraag!
> 
> Disclaimer: This work contains themes of underage sex and adults having sex with children. This work is not intended to glorify, promote, or normalize child sexual abuse. This is a story about terrible people doing terrible things in a world where everything is terrible. If that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable, please close this story now. And if your goal *is* to glorify, promote, or normalize CSA, uuuuuuuuh fuck you? Heck off.
> 
> This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Principal John Martinez was anxious about this year’s end of year school staff meeting. As principal, he was responsible for Perseus Academy’s reputation and survival. The school had fallen on hard times recently, and because of the school’s large debts, this was a do or die moment. His only hope was in the director of Third Coast Neuroscience, who volunteered to help solve his problem. He had to convince the other staff members to accept her proposal. If he couldn’t, the school was finished. He took a moment to pause and take a few deep breaths, then began the meeting.

“Welcome, everyone. Teachers, staff, trustees, and honored guests, welcome to Perseus Academy’s 2024 End of Year school staff meeting,” Martinez began. “First, we’ll talk about our school’s financial situation, the cause, and the solution I’ve come up with. Afterwards, we will of course talk about the usual items, such as the school budget, student scores, bonuses, and our strategy going forward. Oh, and I haven’t forgotten,” he said winking at a businessman, “Your curriculum changes are up for a vote in this meeting too.”

Martinez cleared his throat. “As most of you know, we bring in a lot of money for our school through our football program. Every year, we put lots of money into the program in hopes of seeing a return on that investment. Our team’s performance at the Texas Regional during the last three years was abysmal each time. Even counting ticket sales, we’ve been running in the red the whole time because of our sports program. This means we’ve also been borrowing money for programs sports usually pay for. Now, does anyone want to guess how deeply in debt we are?” Martinez looked around the room slowly. “Anyone? Does anyone want to guess?” Nobody did. “At the moment, we are $1.4 million in debt.”

The room was silent.

“Now,” Martinez said after a moment, “Does anyone know how we got into this situation?”

Principal Martinez stared directly at a portly middle-aged man who had been trying to disappear into his seat since the meeting began. “Coach Huber,” Martinez almost whispered, “Do you have any idea why our proud school is suddenly the laughingstock of Victoria City?”

Coach Huber shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “No,” he said, “I have no idea.”

“Ahh, I see,” Martinez said, nodding. “Well, that’s a bit weird. Remind me, who was it who suggested we buy state of the art exercise equipment for our teams when we still had perfectly serviceable exercise facilities? Or asked for the school to hire expensive dieticians for our team? Who was it who decided that the locker rooms needed a complete renovation last summer? I just can’t seem to remember…” Martinez tapped his forehead with his finger.

“H-hey, wait a minute,” Huber said. “If you remember right, I brought _all_ of those proposals to you, and you signed off on them.”

“On your advice. Remember, you were hired because we need someone with specialized knowledge of sports and what it takes to get wins. That was supposed to be your department, and these last few years you failed to do that. I signed off on your proposals because _you_ were supposed to know what you were doing.”

“But I… I…”

“Listen, just, please be quiet,” Martinez said. “You’re embarrassing yourself. Look, the board and I have all agreed that this year, you’re going to be demoted to ‘assistant coach.’ If our new coach decides that you haven’t improved enough next year, you’re going to be fired. We cut a lot of slack for you in the past because we wanted to see if the first year was just a fluke. Now’s your chance to learn from someone who knows what they’re doing.”

“C’mon,” Huber protested, “How’re you going to find someone who’s better at this than me? I mean-” Martinez’ angry glare cut him short.

“Hey, hey! I think it’s time to introduce me,” said a black-haired woman who had been sitting next to Principal Martinez.

“Yes, I was just getting to that,” Martinez said. “Everyone, this is Marie Harris. You might know her as the CEO of the Third Coast Neuroscience Foundation. In addition to her achievements in neuroscience and engineering, she also has a degree in developmental psychology. She’ll be working for us next year.”

Harris smiled and stood up. “Thanks for that introduction, principal!” she said. “I’m so happy to have the opportunity to work for this academy. I grew up here in Victoria and being able to dedicate myself to its future generations is an honor I’ll never forget. I hope to get along with all of you!”

Martinez spoke up. “Your daughter is enrolled in our school actually, isn’t she?”

Harris nodded. “Yeah, she is! She’s a good student and I’m sure her scores will reflect well on the school.”

Martinez smiled. “Yes, well, I bet they will. I’m very happy for you and your daughter actually, because we have some academic programs in the works she will be the first to experience.” Martinez cleared his throat and addressed the room. “Everyone, Marie Harris here is also an expert in junior football. She’ll be our new coach this year. Marie, why don’t you tell us what you found out about our team?”

“Sure!” Harris said. “In fact, I already made a new program based on analyzing your past blunders and a short interview I had with each member of the current football team.” She took some papers out of a file and adjusted her glasses. “I think I have to conclude that your team is woefully undermotivated. There isn’t too much wrong with their form or strategies.”

“Ha, I told you!” Huber interrupted. “There’s nothing wrong with my coaching. If they’re not motivated enough, we just need to be meaner to them or threaten to kick them out of school. Easy, right? No need to, uh, kick me out and bring her in.”

Harris smiled politely. “Well, no,” she said. “Actually, negative reinforcement from you is probably what _caused_ this lack of motivation. It demoralized them so thoroughly that just being a bit nicer and giving them encouragement isn’t going to cut it for the timeframe we have.” She sat back down. “Actually, what we need to do is give them something to work towards. They need to feel like they’re doing something for themselves, rather than avoiding punishment.”

“I see, I see,” Martinez said, nodding. “Like how you will do tough assignments at the last minute, but you’ll make time for harder work you enjoy doing and go the extra mile.”

“Exactly,” Harris said. “We need to get them feeling like there’s something in this for them.”

One of the board members spoke up. “What if we tried building more school spirit? Would they be inspired to do better if they were more connected to the school?”

Harris shook her head. “School spirit can only go so far. In the end, if they don’t feel they’re getting anything out of it, they’ll do juuuust enough to avoid being scolded.”

“I suppose that’s true,” the man mused, “But we don’t exactly have a lot of time or money. With this debt, we’re going to need to get the first-place prize three times in a row if we want to pay it off without cutting important programs. What exactly is your program?”

“Well,” Harris began while picking up one of her papers, “I assume you all followed the Minor Sexuality Act which passed a couple years ago? I think we can take advantage of it.” She leaned in. “We could let the football team earn “points” for doing well during practice and in games. They could then exchange these points for sexual favors with the cheerleaders. For example, one point gets them a short striptease, five gets them a handjob, ten gets them oral, twenty gets them basic sex, and so on. I would decide how much to award each player depending on their performance. This way, they can all work on something together and feel like they’re doing something for themselves.” She watched the room for signs of approval.

The staff began to murmur. It seemed like nobody was too thrilled about this idea – but nobody really opposed it either. Martinez knew he had to act before the mood drifted too far out of his favor.

“I think that’s a great idea, actually,” Martinez said. “I know some of you might be nervous about being involved with minors and sex, but as Doctor Harris mentioned earlier, the MSA did decriminalize a lot of that sort of thing. Harris would accept full responsibility for overseeing that part of the program, so none of us would have to get any more involved than we want to. I think it’s going to be a great way to give our team the motivation they need to study and practice to be the best they can be. This will give them the drive they need to be the players we need to get out of this mess.”

It worked. He successfully used his social clout and authority to get everyone to buy into this scheme. Now he just needed them to signal that they were onboard.

“I know I haven’t been able to build a relationship with any of you personally,” Harris said, “But I know we can do this, for the future of Victoria’s children. And,” she added, “I’m willing to contribute plenty of money to make sure none of this costs Perseus Academy a single penny.”

The staff seemed to agree. One by one, they said that they were willing to go along with the program if it meant that the school could get through this. Some even asked what they could do to help, offering labor and resources to make sure this went smoothly.

Coach Huber shook his head at the scene unfolding around him. “Have the rest of you gone nuts?” he hissed. “I don’t believe it; I do not believe what’s happening right now. Adults getting involved in kids’ sex lives… I just can’t understand what the world is coming to. And you’re all doing this on the word of some random CEO nobody here even knows? I’m- I’m going to go get something to eat. You all can go ahead with this crazy shit if you want to.”

Huber got out of his seat and stormed off. Martinez chuckled nervously and looked around the room. “Uhh, Huber, right? What a sore loser. Well, uh, let’s get to the rest of the items on our list for today. Let’s start with how we’re going to budget everything this next year…”

~*~

After the meeting ended, Doctor Harris and Principal Martinez stayed behind to talk privately. Harris grinned and leaned over to Martinez. “That went well!” Harris said. “I didn’t expect them to give in that easily. I thought we were going to have to strongarm them into complying, but after you weighed in, they all fell in line.”

“Mhm, yeah...” Martinez said.

“Is something wrong, Principal?” Harris asked.

“It’s nothing, I – I’m just not sure about this.”

“What are you unsure about?”

“It’s just that I’m worried about our school’s reputation, and I’m a bit uncomfortable using the cheer team for this. Are you sure there isn’t a better way to do this?”

Harris laughed. “John, we talked about this already. A small reputation hit is worth it. Your school is going to go under if you don’t do anything, and this is the only way to get your team ready to win first place in the tournament next year.”

“You’re right, you’re right of course. I’ll try to keep that in mind.” Martinez looked up and looked Harris in the eye. “What do you get out of this, by the way? I can’t imagine you’re doing all this just for your daughter’s education. You said you’re doing this for free, but you do expect some kind of payment, right?”

Harris grinned. “Yeah, you got me. I do want some payment. But in the end, even my ‘payment’ benefits you, so you shouldn’t think of it as payment so much as an investment, see? You give me a little and end up getting a lot in return.”

Martinez leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “…What is it you want?”

“Nothing much. For my cheer team, I want to build up a core of elite cheerleaders I pick myself. I want them from the general student body too, so I can build them from the ground up. Would you mind if I looked through the records for next year’s students?”

Martinez hesitated. “Hmm… I guess so, sure. Is that it?”

“Well, I was actually thinking… Do you think you could give them permission to live off-campus? Specifically, so you can transfer them to my custody?”

Martinez slumped into his chair. “Yeah… Yeah, fine, I guess I can do that for you, if that’s what this takes.” He pointed over to a file cabinet. “The student profiles are in there. Pick out the ones you want.”

Harris bounced out of her seat and found the file. She smirked, sat down with it, and began to look through it. Occasionally she would look up and ask Martinez questions about it, usually about a student’s background. Martinez started to doze off after a while, then fell asleep.

Martinez eventually woke up to Harris laughing. “W… What are you laughing at?” Martinez drowsily asked. “Did you find something funny?”

“Oh, kind of. You see this kid?” Harris asked, pointing at one of the students in the file. “He’s the son of some tech company moguls I know. I think I want him. Alright, I think I have enough candidates now.” She slid him four papers. “Could you get these four boys permission to live off campus, and arrange for them to come to Third Coast Neuroscience HQ in a couple weeks? Just tell them they’re coming in for a new medical scan or something. I’ll take care of the rest.”

~*~

Erick Dubois woke up in the school dorms after a ray of sunlight came through his window and into his eyes. He groaned as he fumbled with his blinds, then decided to lay on his side away from the sun. He tried going back to sleep, but he was already too awake. It took him a minute to remember where he was. He had never lived anywhere besides his home before. It was only three weeks ago that he moved to the Perseus Academy dorms. Even after all that time, the dorms still felt alien. His dormmates seemed nice enough, but they were still closed off from each other. He thought that they might eventually get used to each other, but until then, he was still cautious about how much he opened up to them.

Erick forgot about the sun and rolled onto his back again. After yelping in pain and hitting the top bunk with his head, he curled up under his blanket. He started to think that accepting the school lottery results might have been a mistake. Erick wasn’t sure if his one shot at getting a quality education was worth all this stress. He took a deep breath and tried to relax under his blanket, but his body heat quickly warmed the air too much to be comfortable, forcing him to admit defeat and crawl out of bed.

Halfway through Erick’s breakfast, one of his roommates came into the kitchen. “Hey Erick,” he said, “The principal is at the door asking for you. You should probably go see what he wants.”

“Huh? Really?” Erick asked.

“Yeah. I dunno what he’s after, but you should probably hurry. He seemed like he wanted to talk to you right away. I’ll take care of your cereal, so don’t worry about cleaning up.”

Erick hurried down to the dorm lobby, still in his pajamas. Sure enough, when he arrived Principal Martinez was waiting for him, sitting at a table. “Hey Mr. Martinez, I hear you’re looking for me?”

Martinez smiled. “Oh, yes! Sit down, sit down. I have a favor I need to ask you.” He handed Erick a pamphlet. “Have you ever been to the Third Coast Neuroscience foundation?”

“Umm, no, I haven’t,” Erick said, examining the pamphlet.

“Well, the foundation is looking for candidates for a new kind of medical scan. Nothing dangerous or anything, they just want to try out a new way to get a sample of students’ brain scans. They asked us to find some volunteers, and I think you’d be a great candidate for it. This is your opportunity to make some connections and help our school out. Do you think you’d want to go today?”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “Really? Y-yeah, of course! I’ll go and get dressed!”

“Good, good, that settles it then! Meet me out in the parking lot after you’re done, and I’ll take you there. My car is a blue truck parked right out front.”

After confirming the location of the principal’s truck, Erick ran up to his dorm to get dressed. He grabbed some clothes from his drawers and headed into the bathroom. He peeled off his pajamas and tossed them into the corner. Erick tried to put his pants on after throwing on a t-shirt and hoodie, but realized they shrunk after he put them in the washing machine a few days ago. He tried pulling them on, but they kept getting caught. He eventually reached down and tucked his dick into his jeans, which was enough to get them to fit. He put his hands in his hoodie pockets and stretched the hoodie over his bulge, hoping that would be enough to hide it. He hurried and brushed his fluffy blonde hair, then combed it for good measure.

Erick hurried downstairs, hoping he wasn’t too late to catch the principal. He charged through the front door and looked around the parking lot, trying to find his truck.

“Hey, over here!” the principal called. “You ready to head over to the lab?”

Erick turned his head and saw Principal Martinez hanging out of his truck. “Y-yeah! Coming!” Erick ran over to the truck.

“Just jump into the back on the drivers’ side,” Martinez said.

Erick nodded and opened the door. To his surprise, there were already three other boys in the truck. As he slid into the truck and put his seat belt on, the tanned boy next to him spoke up.

“So you’re the last guy, huh? What took you so long?” the boy looked at Erick’s pants. “Wow, those are some tight pants. Were you thinking of trying to seduce the principal before you got to the lab or something?”

Erick blushed. “N-no! I just washed these pants recently and they shrunk, that’s all.”

“You’re blushing,” the boy said. “I bet I’m right. And that’s probably why you did your hair, huh?”

“Hey kids, let’s all be respectful to each other,” Martinez interjected. “Erick, the boy next to you is Daniel.”

Daniel pouted and sat back in his seat. “Whatever, I guess.”

“The boy next to him is Ethan.”

“Hello there,” the dark-skinned boy said.

“And this one is the front seat is Michael.”

“Hey,” the wavy-haired blonde kid said flatly.

“It’ll take us about thirty minutes to get to the lab,” Martinez said while pulling out of the driveway, “So please try to behave yourselves until then.” He motioned to Michael. “So Michael, I hear the lab director here knows you?”

“You mean Aunt Marie?” Michael asked.

“Yeah, uh, I guess that’s who I mean. What’s with the ‘Aunt’ Marie thing? You’re not related, are you?”

“No, it’s a sex thing, obviously,” Michael said dryly.

“E-excuse me, what?”

“No way,” Daniel whispered to Ethan.

“Nah, I was kidding,” Michael said, a small smile on his face. “Actually, Aunt Marie works a lot with my parents, you see. She is a neurologist, so she always wants more powerful computers and imaging scanners, and the like. My parents own a large tech company, and they are interested in the brain’s computational abilities. I’m sure you can make the connection there – no pun intended. She comes up to Maine a lot to visit, so we got to know each other really well.”

“Wow, that’s really cool, Michael!” Ethan said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Daniel nodded, not looking like he really understood any of it.

Martinez sighed and wiped his brow.. “That’s good. It’s a good thing for a boy your age to have important connections like that,” Martinez said, puffing his chest out. “What are you planning to do when you’re older?”

“I’m not sure,” Michael said. “Maybe I’ll go into the tech industry like my parents, but there might be something I’m more interested in. I like programming though, so I’ll probably just end up doing that.”

“Well, whatever you decide to do, I bet you’re smart enough to do it. Your school record is impressive.” He looked into the rear-view mirror to look Erick in the eyes. “What about you, Erick? What are you interested in?”

Erick jumped a bit. “Uhh, well, I like games, I guess. And I’m into books.” He chuckled nervously.

“Oh really?” Ethan asked. “What books do you like?”

“Oh, you know, mostly older young adult books, like Michael Vey and Fablehaven. That sort of thing.”

“That’s cool!” Ethan said. “I like Fablehaven too, so we should talk about it sometime! What book are you on? Oh, or maybe you finished the series?”

“Nah, I’m on the second book, so sure, but don’t spoil anything for me!”

“No problem, no problem. I didn’t know anyone else still read that series. I even have the other books in my dorm if you want to borrow them when you’re done with the second one.”

Daniel, was squirming around this whole time, let out a moan. “Man, you guys are so boring. Don’t you ever play any sports or anything?”

Erick looked at him. “Oh yeah?” he asked. “Are you here on a sports scholarship or something?”

“Nah, I got here through the lottery,” Daniel said. “But I’m gonna be a Major League Baseball player when I grow up! Don’t think I’m bad just ‘cuz I’m not on the school team, though. They just don’t have any openings right now.”

Erick rolled his eyes.

Martinez chuckled. “You kids are a pretty interesting group. Just try not to kill each other before we get to the lab, okay?” He looked at Daniel’s reflection. “And Daniel, please, put your seat belt on.”

“No.”

~*~

After a half hour of driving, the boys arrived at the lab. Michael examined the lab campus. It looked normal enough, but knowing Aunt Marie, he thought there should be more to it. There was no gate, no armed guards, or even security drones. While the truck drove into the parking lot, Michael looked up and noticed that some of the dark windows on the top floors were propped open slightly. He looked closely…

And saw the glint of a scope.

He sighed in relief. He should have known Aunt Marie wouldn’t be so obvious with her security. It just wasn’t her style to have something big and imposing when something discrete would do.

“Alright, we’re here,” Principal Martinez said, pulling into a parking space. “Everyone hop out and follow me.”

The boys unbuckled their seatbelts and hopped out of the car. Walking through the campus, Erick and Ethan were amazed by the sheer scale of the labs. “Wow, it’s so big,” Erick remarked.

“I know, right?” Ethan said. “I’ve never seen one this big before.”

“It’s not _that_ big,” Michael responded. “It’s pretty average, all things considered.”

“Hurry up, you’re going to be late for our appointment,” Martinez called. The boys caught up to the principal, eventually making it to the lab’s visitor lobby. Marie Harris was talking to one of the head scientists before she noticed Martinez.

“Ah! You’re finally here!” Marie said. “Great, great, great. My name is Marie Harris, the CEO of Third Coast Neuroscience. I already read up on each of you.” She waved at Michael. “Hey Michael! I’m glad you made it.” She motioned at Martinez, who gave a thumbs up and walked off. She scanned the rest of the group, before settling on Erick. “You’re… Erick, right?”

Erick jostled. “Y-yeah, that’s me.”

“Yes! I knew it!” Marie said, pumping her fist wildly. She stared at Erick for a bit, trailing down his body. “You wore some really tight pants today, huh?”

“He wanted to fuck the principal,” Daniel said.

Erick turned bright red. “I did not!”

Marie laughed. “Hey, there’d be nothing wrong with it if you did. Why, I almost did it with my principal when I was your age- oh, but there I go oversharing about myself again. Anyway, we should probably get the tour started.” She did a sharp heel turn and pointed down the corridor. “Follow me everyone!” She started walking and then turned around back to Erick. “Oh, and don’t go thinking anything naughty.” She pushed her index fingers to her temple and made a stern face. “I’ll know! I’m a neuroscientist, after all.” After the rest of the group headed off, Erick turned to Michael with a scared expression as if to ask if she was telling the truth. Michael let out a small chuckle and shook his head. Erick wasn’t sure what to make of that.

Eventually, boys reached a room which was labeled “Data Processing.” Inside, there were rows upon rows of computers, each with complicated graphs and data readouts Michael had never seen before. He stood behind one of the workers, trying to make sense of it while Marie talked about the facility’s history and her work. After a while, the employee in question turned around to see what was going on and saw him staring at his screen.

“Gah!” the employee yelled. “What are you doing here kid? You’re not supposed to be in here.”

Marie called across the room. “Hey, don’t worry about it! These kids are with me.”

The employee sat bamboozled for a minute until a look of recognition crossed his face. “Oh! Are these the kids you were telling us about last week?”

“Yeah, today’s the big day! Speaking of which, Michael, come over here! I have something for you!”

Michael jogged over, and Marie held out some papers. “As you know, any kind of medical experiment or scan requires the patient to sign a waiver. Here, you’re just saying that you know what we’re doing, and you consent to the procedure. Here’s a form and a pen.”

Michael and Ethan signed it immediately and handed it back. The other two hesitated. “Hey,” Daniel said, “I’m not sure I want to do this now. I don’t get exactly what it is, or why you picked us. Are you _sure_ there aren’t any side effects to this?”

Marie bowed and clasped her hands. “C’mon, please? It’s perfectly safe, and it’s super important for the future of educational research.”

“Oh c’mon, do you think we’d fall for that?” Daniel asked. “Right Erick-” He looked over to see Erick furiously signing his name. Marie leaned down and took the form out of Erick’s hands, then turned to Daniel.

“Heeeeey Daniel, you don’t wanna be the only one left out, do you?” Marie asked. She leaned in to Daniel’s ear, making sure her breasts were in front of his face. “If you sign that paper, I’m sure something good will come of it.”

Daniel turned bright red. “A-alright, I’ll do it, I guess…” He backed up a bit and signed.

“Great!” Marie snatched the form from him. “Yoink!” She adjusted her glasses and flipped through the forms a few times. “Alright, everything seems to be in order,” she said. “Go into that room marked ‘neural sequencing’ over there. The lab assistants will get you all set up.” Michael was the last one through the door. Before he left, he saw Marie chuck the forms into a recycling bin. He stopped for a minute, then shrugged and kept walking.

The room was made of pure white panels, with a large pillar in the center which got wider as it approached the ceiling. There were four black chairs surrounding the pillar, each with what looked like full headsets integrated into the headrest. On the sides of each chair, there were two round slots. Some lab technicians were waiting in the room making some last-minute adjustments to the equipment. One turned his head and noticed the boys. “There you are,” he said. “You’re a couple minutes early, but that shouldn’t be a problem. We’re just finishing up here.” He motioned to his team. “If you boys would come over here and sit down, we’ll get you set up.”

The boys cautiously approached the machine in the center. After the technicians adjusted the chairs to fit each of the boys, the lead technician started reading from a clipboard. “Now, I’m going to have to warn you that our scanning equipment requires you to be in a state of minor sensory deprivation. You won’t be able to see or hear while the scan is ongoing. This might be a bit disorienting, and so we are going to have to use some minor restraints to keep you in place. It would mess up our data if you fell out of your seats halfway through.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Daniel said.

The technicians put the boys’ arms into the chairs’ slots, which sealed tightly around their hands. While the technicians strapped the boys in further, Michael watched as the headset lowered onto his head. It snapped in place under his chin, leaving him in total darkness. He was impressed at how complete the sense of isolation was. Not only could he not see anything, but the only thing he could hear was his own blood flowing in his head, his heartbeat, and whatever echoed through his body. After a few minutes, he began to feel dizzy without being able to confirm where he was in space. The only things that reminded him of where he was were the restraints he felt as he instinctively tried to move. He started to panic, and then-

Click.

Michael’s headset unstrapped itself and raised over his head. The technicians came over and removed his restraints. The head technician came back through the door. “Alright, we should have everything we need now,” he said. “That wasn’t so bad, was it? We should have the results in a few hours. In the meantime, why don’t you kids go relax in the guest quarters? We’ll let you know when they’re done and show you the results.”

Some lab assistants guided Michael and the other boys over to a small room with a few beds and a bathroom. Daniel crashed on the nearest bed. “Man, I’m tired,” he said. “That machine was really weird. I almost threw up.”

“Me too,” Ethan said. “I’m glad that’s over with.”

The boys all sat down, taking their phones out to pass the time. Michael couldn’t stop thinking about this visit. Nothing added up. Why would Marie get such a small sample size if she wanted to test her new gadget? Wouldn’t selecting him specifically mess with a random sampling? The more he thought about it, the less sense this whole situation made. He sighed and laid back in his bed. Oh well, he thought. Whatever this is, it might be interesting to see.

A few hours later, the boys heard a knock at the door. “May I come in?” A man’s voice said.

“Yeah, come on in,” Michael said.

The door opened to reveal the head technician from earlier. “Hey, we finished analyzing the results from earlier, and we found something disturbing with all of your brain scans,” he said. “We need to do another scan to make sure our equipment wasn’t faulty. I know the scanning process can be a bit unpleasant, but it’s very important that we make sure nothing is going on there.”

The boys looked at each other and decided to follow him back to the chamber.

~*~

Doctor Harris sipped a coffee in her office. This was a moment of truth for her. She had been planning this for years, and now it was going to come to fruition. She motioned to the lab director. “Are the programs ready?” she asked.

The director nodded. “Yes, Ms. Harris. They were largely complete beforehand, but the modifications for the final one were difficult to implement based on that subject’s neurology. However, the team says the program is ready to go.”

“Good, good!” Harris said, drinking more of her coffee. “And did George go to get the boys?”

“Yes, they should be arriving in the resequencing chamber shortly.” The director paused.

“Is something wrong? Huh?”

“It’s just that what we’re doing is highly unethical. I’m worried about what will happen if this gets out.”

Harris smiled. “Well, I’m not going to tell if you don’t.” She motioned to some scientists on her monitor. “And none of these shmucks have the guts to admit they were part of this. Don’t worry, if worse comes to worst I’ll just call in some favors. I don’t finance campaigns out of the goodness of my heart, y’know. We’ll be fine.” Her monitor showed the boys being brought into the chamber. “Oh! Oh!” she exclaimed. “It’s starting!”

The boys nervously approached the pillar again. The technicians strapped them in, making sure to ease their fears. After they were secured, Harris’ intercom came on. “Boss,” the head technician said, “The boys are in the neural resequencers again. We can start the programming as soon as you give the word.”

Harris snapped her fingers. “You’re all awesome, you know that? This would not have been possible without all of you.” She leaned in closer to her monitor. “Start the resequencing. Send the thought logs to my office.”

“Yes ma’am. Starting the program now.”

Harris started bouncing in her seat. It was finally time. The thought logs came in one by one.

“What? This is different… Who are you?”

“Oh, hell no! Let me out! What’s going on here?”

“You want me… to do that? I don’t want to, but… I guess, if that will make you happy…”

“You made something really interesting this time, didn’t you, Aunt Marie…?”


End file.
